Telstra first and Singtel Optus last in broadband, says independent report

Telstra’s strong investment in world-leading networks and products has cemented its number one ranking on overall broadband performance, according to new independent research results released today.

Telstra retained its number one ranking in the Epitiro research report, which measures performance across a range of indicators including Internet speed, email, browsing, connection and gaming.

Telstra Public Policy and Communication Group Managing Director David Quilty said the strong result was the dividend of Telstra’s strategy to invest in cutting-edge technology.

"Telstra has world-class fixed, cable and wireless networks, including the largest, fastest, national wireless broadband network in the world. This result hasn’t come about by accident.

“While Telstra has moved on from the NBN process, we will continue to invest and innovate in our world-class network assets. We’re upgrading Next G™ to 21 Mbps and have a road map to make it even faster. In 2008, we upgraded more than 900 additional exchanges to ADSL2+ and our cable network can deliver up to 30Mbps to some 1.8 million households.”

The latest performance rankings of the top eight broadband providers in Australia, exposed real concerns for those involved in making decisions on the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN).

Epitiro ranked Singtel Optus - the largest remaining NBN bidder - dead last out of the nation’s eight main broadband providers, damning it for its poor email delivery times. Singtel Optus email delivery times were around 10 minutes, nearly twice as long as the survey average. It also slumped in areas such as response times in finding host addresses and network computers.

Acacia and Axia, the other remaining national NBN bidders, did not rank because they do not even offer any broadband services.

These results cast a dark cloud over the capabilities and the record of those asking to be entrusted with the massive and critically important NBN project.

The NBN is the biggest infrastructure project in Australia’s history and would be the largest NBN in the world. It could cost $15 billion to build, including $4.7 billion of taxpayers’ money.

“We now know the race is between a company ranked last of eight in broadband performance by an independent, internationally recognised, expert benchmarking group and two companies that are not even ranked because they have no record of providing services,” Mr Quilty said.

Today’s report comes on top of the Singtel Optus 3G network being ranked the slowest 3G network in the world in terms of data speeds by the independent Wired.com in September 2008.

Mr Quilty said the Epitiro study provided a harsh reality check on the NBN.

“Australia’s NBN must be world-leading rather than world-lagging. It must be reliable, secure, highly capable and upgradable and built by a company with the finances to deliver. There is nothing to suggest that the remaining three national bidders of the NBN meet any of these core requirements.”